Of Spirits, Demons and Soccer
by Children of Light
Summary: Spirits and humans have always lived peacefully among each other, but now that has changed. When spirits suddenly attack the humans, Tenma and his friends have no choice but to battle them if they want to live. And there's only one way to do that... "Challenge?" "Challenge. Soccer!" Warning: Violence. Collab with Lotus Sword.
1. The First Challenge

"Fei! Hurry up!" Saru shouted in a bored tone. "Meia and Gillis are driving me crazy with their lovey-dovey-ness." The said couple snorted, but didn't reply when they saw the white-haired boy's glare.

"Maybe you should find someone too, Saru," Meia winked. "Then you wouldn't be so grumpy all the time and you would see how wonderful love is."

"Although you won't ever find a girl half as beautiful as Meia," Gillis said, kneeling in front of her and taking her hand as if he was going to propose to her. "Even Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, would be jealous once the sun enlightens your perfect figure. Those eyes that shine like..." and then started yet another long lecture about Meia's beauty.

'That boy should take up poetry,' Saru thought as he rolled his eyes and turned to his friend's house. "Fei!"

"I told you I have to run an errand, didn't I?" Fei said, closing the front door behind him. Instead of his soccer jersey, he wore his casual clothes and instead of his sport bag, he held an empty shopping bag in his hand. Saru frowned at him.

"Why didn't you tell me that before? I could've gotten away from those two," he said, pointing at the couple behind him. Meia and Gillis were still complimenting each other and didn't notice Fei's arrival.

"I did tell you that before," Fei retorted. "You just didn't listen to me. I'll join you as soon as I can, okay? I'll be there within the next hour." When Saru gave him a look, he added: "What? It's busy in the store around this time and I have a lot of things to buy! The shop isn't near, either, you know, so I-"

"Yeah, yeah," Saru interrupted him, not wanting to listen to another long list. Gillis' and Meia's lists were long enough. "See you soon then." He abruptly turned around and grabbed the couple's arms, dragging them along. This effectively interrupted Meia, who was once again complimenting Gillis' hairstyle. Her compliment changed into a complaint (directed at Saru) as she tried not to fall while walking behind him. Fei let out a small laugh before he turned the other way and headed towards the mall. He, too, had a long list to clear before he could join his friends in their soccer practice.

* * *

"Saru, you can let go of us, you know?" Gillis said. He and Meia were still being dragged by the white-haired boy.

"As long as you don't be... like that," Saru sighed as he let go of them.

"You're so tense, Saru," Meia smiled while exchanging glances with her boyfriend. "Maybe we should get you a girlfriend! I love to play matchmaker and-"

"Don't. You. Dare," Saru interrupted her, emphasizing every word. The three friends soon reached their practice grounds, where the rest of their team was waiting. There were now twelve of them, and they made two teams to play a little match. It was just for fun, though both teams tried their best to win of course. As Saru stole the ball with a sliding, he saw that they weren't alone anymore.

The ball rolled over the line, against the paw of what seemed to be a grey wolf. The rough, dark grey fur, the pointy ears, the golden eyes and the sharp teeth made the creature seem like a real wolf, but Saru knew that it wasn't. Namely, on the back and sides was the grey fur covered with strange-looking, blue markings. It seemed like symbols, but he had no idea what they meant. Next to the wolf were other creatures, eleven in total. Some seemed like lions, others like birds or critters. There was one that looked like a man-sized rabbit, with long ears and big front teeth. All creatures had glowing markings on their bodies, which indicated that they weren't normal animals.

They were spirits.

But Saru had never seen spirits like these before. Not that he knew much about them, for humans and spirits often went their separate ways and tried to stay out of each other's businesses as much as possible. He had seen a few spirits, but they were smaller and not as... dangerous-looking. These ones looked more like demons, if he was honest. The big wolf, which Saru assumed was the leader, placed his paw on the ball. "Challenge," he growled, and the blue markings lit up.

"Challenge?" Saru repeated, thinking that he might have heard it wrong. Spirits and humans spoke the same language in theory, but there were differences since both species rarely communicated with each other. The wolf-spirit's voice was low and he growled a little, which fitted his appearance perfectly.

"Challenge," the spirit confirmed. "Soccer." It was obvious that this wolf hadn't spoken very much and only used the most important words to voice his desires.

"You want to have a soccer match with us?" Saru felt how his teammates came closer to him, forming one team. "Why?" He didn't even know that spirits could play soccer. He, for one, had never seen it. He wondered what it would be like, to play a match against spirits. He was sure that they would be the first humans to find out. He liked that idea.

The wolf-spirit didn't answer, because he didn't want to or didn't know the words for it. All he did was to repeat his request. "Challenge. Soccer. Now."

Saru smiled and nodded. "Alright then." He didn't pay attention to the danger that the spirits in front of him emitted, he only looked forward to the upcoming match. After all, what could go wrong if they just played a friendly match against spirits?

The positions were as followed: The captain was Saru, the forwards were Gamma and Alpha, the midfielders were Meia, Gillis, Saru and Beta, the defenders were Kinako, Zanark, Zotan and Sync and Chet as the goalkeeper.

For the spirits, the captain was, as far as Saru could tell, the wolf. They had the wolf and a lion as forwards, a bird, a ram, a bat and a lynx as midfielders, a sheep a deer, a horse and an ox as defenders with the rabbit as the goalkeeper.

* * *

Saru fell to his knees, panting. Those... Those spirits were on a completely different level than his own team. The match had been completely at their pace. He glanced at the score board, which showed a score of 13 - 0. They hadn't even managed to score one goal. Two grey paws appeared in his vision and when he looked up, he saw the big wolf with the blue markings. Now that Saru was on his knees, he was on eye-level with the spirit. The latter contracted his hind legs and before Saru knew what was going on, he laid on his back and the wolf-spirit was on top of him. The creature held his front paws on the boy's shoulders, preventing him from escaping. Saru heard a few startled shrieks, and when he turned his head to the side, he saw that his teammates were in the same situation as him. He turned his attention back to the wolf-spirit and glared into his eyes, trying to ignore the big row of sharp teeth that was so close to his throat.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. The wolf-spirit's nails dug a little in his shoulder and he clenched his teeth to stop himself from crying out.

"Win match," the demon-like wolf growled. "Prize."

"There is no prize, it was just for fun," Saru raged, but the wolf didn't answer anymore. His golden eyes shifted to Saru's arm and after one second, he bit down, earning a scream from the white-haired boy. Similar screams of pain were heard all around him, coming from his teammates.

Gamma and Alpha were being torn apart by the lion and lynx, Beta was crying as the ram slammed straight into her, Meia and Gillis held onto each other while getting pecked and bitten by the gigantic bird and bat, Kinako was being attacked by the sheep, the deer embedded its horns right in Zanark's abdomen, the horse was literally kicking Zotan around, Sync was getting trampled by the ox and the rabbit was crushing Chet.

Fei was nearing the practice grounds when he heard the screams. He broke into a run, panicking. When he reached the field, his eyes were met with a horrible sight.

"Oh… My… God…" Fei's eyes widened and his entire body started trembling. The demons heard and looked up from killing his teammates. Fei, realising that he was going to be their next victim, snapped out of his trance and turned around, running for his life as tears streamed down his cheeks.

Back at the training grounds, it was silent except for the cries from the animals.

The three siblings, Alpha, Beta and Gamma, were silent, having used their final breaths to apologise for all the horrible things they had done to each other in the past. Meia and Gillis were in each other's arms, together, even in death. Zanark, Zotan, Sync and Chet were now lifeless, distorted bodies on the ground. Only Kinako, Fei's cousin, and Saryuu Evans remained.

"Please, Fei… Live…" With that, the two closed their eyes and surrendered themselves to the darkness.

* * *

**Lotus Sword's A/N: Yay, first chapter is up!^^ It was my first collab story, but I'm glad Children of Light asked me for it! Hopefully you liked it!**

**Children of Light's A/N: So, this is a collab I'm working on with Att-chan, and it's working out well so far! Hope you enjoyed this chapter (although please don't say it made you happy- that's just sadistic)!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. The Formation of the Team

Fei ran and ran, not caring about the fact that his legs got sore and his lungs were burning. He didn't know where he was running to, either, he just ran away. Away from those monsters that killed his friends. At some point, he caught sight of a group of teens that were playing soccer. Despite his panic, he recognised them right away. He called out for his best friend, who was among the teens. "Tenma, Tenma!"

The said brunette turned at the calling of his name and smiled when he saw his green-haired friend running towards him. Even though Inazuma Town wasn't a grand town, there were two middle schools. He had been quite sad to find out that Fei, who he had known for a long time, would attend the other school, but the two boys kept on playing soccer together despite their school's rivalry. A lot of Tenma's teammates knew Fei as well and got along with him, but some were a little wary of their rival's appearance. After all, they would have a soccer match with Fei's team tomorrow.

Fei ran straight into Tenma. Normally he would be more formal or at the very least greeted him first, but given what he just saw, he had the right to act illogical.

"F-Fei!" Tenma yelped as the boy crashed right into him. By now, most of the other members of Raimon had started to crowd around Tenma and Fei.

Fei kept on repeating his friends name as he clung onto Tenma's soccer uniform as if his life depended on it.

"Oi, oi," Matatagi stated annoyed as he walked over to the trembling boy. Matatagi Hayato was a boy whose trust you needed to earn. Unlike his captain, who got along with everyone he met, Matatagi didn't trust anyone right off the bat. And certainly no soccer players from different schools against whom they would compete the next day. "Came here to spy and see our attacks? Tsk, I knew Feida could be low."

"Matatagi!" Shindou said sternly before he shifted his attention back to the trembling green-haired teen who was now sitting on the ground and mumbling a string of incoherent words.

"Saru… Kinako… Everyone… Animals… Monsters… Dead… Blood… Everywhere…!"

Tenma lifted the rambling boy off the ground and led him to the benches where the managers, Aoi, Akane and Midori, quickly tended to him by placing a wet towel on his head, handing him a bottle of water and consoling him.

After Fei was relatively calm, Tenma approached him. "Fei, what happened? Why are you here?"

"I… I agreed to meet Saru and the rest to play soccer, but Mom asked me to run an errand first, so I did. Once I was done, I made my way to the soccer field and I heard screaming on the way. A lot of screaming." He lowered the bottle of water and stared at the ground. A distant look was in his eyes as he replayed the terrible scene. "I-I panicked and ran to the field. And then … Everyone else was there. Saru, Meia, Gillis, Gamma, Alpha, Beta, Kinako… A-And there were these… These huge monster things that were tearing them apart! There was blood everywhere and I… I ran away…" Tears started streaming down Fei's face again.

The others only stared at him, horror-stricken. "W-what?!" Hakuryuu spluttered out. Next to him, Tsurugi had a rare stunned expression.

"Whoa, everyone! Calm down! Fei, please bring us to the place where these monsters were." Shindou placed a hand on Fei's shoulder. The latter stared at him with scared eyes, terrified at the mere thought of going back, but then he clenched his teeth confidently and nodded shakily.

* * *

When the group arrived at the scene, though, Fei was stunned while the others were simply confused. Some had already begun to question Fei's sanity. The soccer field was empty. Not only were there no man-eating monsters, the bodies of Fei's teammates were gone too. There was no sign of what had happened, not even a drop of blood!

"H-how… They were… right here…" Fei grabbed his head, stunned beyond words. He barely registered a wolf jumping out from the forest next to the field until Aoi screamed. Fei looked up and instantly recognized it. The creature was huge and its fur was dark grey with light blue markings on it. Circles, lines and triangles decorated the mysterious beast and the markings lit up as the creature laid eyes on the group of teens. Fei pointed at it with a shaking finger. "That's it! That's one of the monsters who killed them!"

As more beasts started to surround the wolf, the whole group took a step back. They all realized that this was bad and that they needed to be cautious of their actions.

The wolf nudged a soccer ball, that no one noticed before, forward with his nose. The black and white orb slowly rolled until it came to a halt against Tenma's foot. They all stared down at it as if they'd never seen anything like it before. No, rather, they looked at it as if it could devour them all in one second.

"Challenge," the wolf growled.

Tenma looked up, took a step forward and glared at the wolf. "Where are the others? What did you do to Fei's team?"

"Lose match. We prize."

"Why are you doing this?"

The wolf ignored the question and repeated his first statement. "Challenge. Soccer."

"Give Saru and the others back!" Fei yelled, tears present in his eyes. No one, not even Fei himself, knew whether he meant to return his friends' remains or his living, breathing, soccer-playing teammates, but it didn't really matter at the moment.

The wolf instantly lowered himself in an attack stance and bared his teeth at the youngsters. A low and dangerous growl came from deep in his throat before he uttered his statement for the third time, sounding much more threatening and demanding this time. "Challenge. Soccer. Now."

"Alright, what now?" Aoi asked nervously as she looked from one player to another.

"It's not like we've got much of a choice," Kirino said with his arms crossed and a serious look on his face. "If they don't challenge us, they'll challenge someone else… Besides," he glanced at the bird and the bat spirits who'd flown over them and were now surrounding them, "I doubt they would let us go that easily."

"But if we are going to play, we need eleven players," Shindou said, thinking deeply with his hand on his chin. Then he looked up and looked at the pale greenette. Fei had already regained some colour in his face, but it was obvious he felt anything but comfortable around the spirits. "Fei, do you think you can play?"

Fei nodded. "Hai, I can."

"Oi, oi, are we going to be okay?" Ibuki questioned. "We've never played together as a team, have we?"

"Amagi-san and Kurumada-san are still recovering from the injuries they got during our last match, and we don't have any other members," Shindou countered gently.

"We'll be okay," Tenma said, still facing the wolf instead of his teammates. Now he looked over his shoulder and smiled optimistically. "If we can protect everyone by playing soccer against these monsters, then we just have to do it! We may not have played together, but we all have played and if we try hard enough, we'll win!"

When he earned a confirming nod from everyone in the group, even Fei, Tenma turned back and smiled challenging at the wolf in front of him.

"We accept your challenge!"

* * *

**Lotus Sword's A/N: Yosha! The second chapter is (finally) up! Sorry it took so long, minna-san! We hope you enjoyed it!**

**Children of Light's A/N: Things are heating up! Not much action here, but look forward to the next one! I'm glad I can work with such a descriptive author like Att-chan!**

**Thanks for reading!**


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